


young blood

by peachesandgravy (cheriper)



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Friendship, High School, M/M, Other, i'm sorry in advance, jaepil if you squint, sungbri one-sided, trilogy mv, yoon dowoon mafia lord
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheriper/pseuds/peachesandgravy
Summary: They say high school never ends. When you’re in the moment, high school really does feel limitless. Here’s a story of five boys from different walks of life and all meeting at the same point.Or, the trilogy fic no one asked for but here we are anyways.
Relationships: Kim Wonpil/Park Jaehyung | Jae
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. we're forming a band

Nobody ever liked getting called into the principal’s office.

So on a bright Monday morning, when Kim Wonpil found himself waiting for the principal to let him in, he couldn’t help but feel like his heart was about to burst out of his chest. 

He was as normal as a senior high school student as could be. He was the second member of the music club --- that the music club only had two members was a minor detail he often overlook. He went to school on time, got decent grades, and hung out with his childhood friend Park Sungjin during lunch and free breaks. That was pretty much his life.

So he couldn’t think of any reason why he was being sent to the principal’s office at eight in the morning.

Someone knocked on the door quite rudely, breaking the silence in the office.

The principal’s secretary, an old lady called Ms. Han, gingerly stood up from her seat to open the door and let in a grungy student. Wonpil wouldn’t go as far as say that Kang Younghyun was the school delinquent, but the said boy was well on his way on establishing himself as such. He was a transferee in the latter part of their junior year. His rough edges made it difficult for him to fit in.

But Wonpil was hopeful he could get to Younghyun one of these days.

Younghyun plopped on the seat beside Wonpil and leveled him a seemingly narrowed look from his foxy eyes.

Wonpil could see how people would mistake it for a glare, but he was sure it was just Younghyun’s resting bitch face. Sometimes, Wonpil would look at Younghyun when the other boy was not paying attention and see the loneliness in his eyes.

High school made a lot of people lonelier.

“What are you here for?” Younghyun asked Wonpil roughly.

Wonpil half-smiled at him. “I have no idea either. I was just told this morning to wait for Sir Jinyoung here.”

Younghyun snorted at this. It seemed like he was at the rebellious stage of flouting authority as much as he could get away with.

“Your first time here?” Younghyun followed up.

Wonpil stretched his back, opening his chest up to correct his posture. He had been finding himself hunched a lot these days. “Hmmm. You could say that.”

Younghyun snorted again at him, which earned him a glare from Wonpil.

“You don’t get stamps on a loyalty card for visiting the principal more times than most students, Younghyun.” Wonpil turned to Younghyun and scolded him.

“Brian.”

“Huh?”

“It’s Brian,” Younghyun said. The look he gave Wonpil didn’t look like the almost-glare stare from earlier. This one had more intent and fire in them to qualify as a glare. “My name’s Brian.”

This time, it was Wonpil who snorted at him. Students who preen to look as if they’re cool badasses were a dime a dozen in high school. “Right. Brian. Do you want me to call you ‘Bri’ while we’re at it? Make you sound cooler?”

He was obviously mocking Younghyun at this point.

Before Younghyun could even open his mouth to reply, the door flew open and the principal came in. Park Jinyoung had been an institution at this school. Wonpil’s parents had been students under Park Jinyoung once upon a time. He was just that old and well, institutionalized.

“Ah, Kim Wonpil. Our little Mozart. Let’s get over this quickly so you could go back to your classes.” Mr. Jinyoung rummaged on the many documents strewn across Ms. Han’s table and picked up a manila folder with quite a thick sheaf of papers inside.

Before he strode over to his office, Mr. Jinyoung looked at Younghyun with the calmness only a grandparent could give. “Ah, Younghyunie. Wait for me here while I talk to Wonpil real quick.”

Nobody called Kang Younghyun, gangster-to-be, Younghyunie.

But it didn’t seem like Younghyun minded it. He just nodded perfunctorily.

Before Wonpil could think more about this weird exchange, he was already summoned to the principal’s office.  
  
  
  


The door closed behind Wonpil and his nerves started to act up again.

Mr. Jinyoung’s office was actually well-lit and modern-looking to be an old person’s office. The older man shut his shades, giving the room a darker, more serious ambience. Wonpil knew it wasn’t above Mr. Jinyoung to do it for the added drama.

“So. Kim Wonpil. Music Club vice-president. You must be wondering why I called you in here,” Mr. Jinyoung began.

Wonpil only nodded at him.

Mr. Jinyoung gave him a look with his head resting atop his interlocked fingers. “Well, the folks at the university you applied at wanted to see more from you.”

“The audition tapes weren’t enough?”

The principal released an exhausted sigh, as if the extra requirement was weighing down on him, too. “No. They wanted to see how your voice and playing would look and sound when mixed with others.”

“So… they want me to take part in a choir?” Wonpil tilted his head at him in confusion.

“Not really a choir,” Mr. Jinyoung answered. “But more like a band.”

“A band?” Wonpil felt his eyes fall out of their sockets. A band? But he had never sang with a band before. More importantly, he wasn’t a part of any band. He didn’t even know any band right now!

There were ten thousand questions running through Wonpil’s mind, but the only word he managed to get out was, “Why?”

Mr. Jinyoung shrugged. “Who knows with them? They wanted to see you and a band perform a showcase on the upcoming school festival.”

“But that’s in three months!”

Mr. Jinyoung released another deep sigh. His sighs were beginning to irritate Wonpil. Sure, the older man might just be being sympathetic towards what Wonpil would go through. But still, it wasn’t his battle to fight. If anything, it seemed like he did nothing to protect Wonpil, a powerless senior high school student, from getting abused by nasty, power-hungry talent scouts.

(Wonpil would belatedly think back to his thought and acknowledge that he might be a tad overreacting, but his point remained.)

“I know, Wonpiri. It’s sad. But as the vice president of the music club--”

“The music club is just me and Park Jaehyung!”

“--I’m sure you could find more people, possibly your new bandmates, just in time for the school fair. It would be the perfect time to showcase your talent, record your audition tape, and provide entertainment for the school. It’s the perfect solution, right?” 

If Wonpil was the type of person who snarled, he was sure he would have done so at Mr. Jinyoung, the authority figure be damned.

Good thing Principal Jinyoung’s next guest would do that for him.  
  
  
  


“And he had the gall to tell me to stop whining and start looking for members!” Wonpil ranted at his friend, and long-time crush, Park Sungjin back in their homeroom. 

It was the morning break, so most of their classmates were busy scouring for anyone who had finished their math homework and copied them off. Wonpil was pretty decent at math, so he just spent the time complaining at the ridiculous request of the university talent scouts at his friend.

Meanwhile, Sungjin didn’t look like he was listening to his friend’s agony. His eyes were kept on Shin Yeeun, the pretty girl with the shiny, long hair and pretty smile. He had been smitten ever since their junior year.

Flashes of a dark, rainy night, a girl with the softest hands on his cheeks played through his mind.

If Sungjin was the person who sighed at nostalgia, he would have done so.

“Ah! I thought of a bright idea,” Wonpil said beside him.

Sungjin distractedly answered with, “Yeah?”

“Let’s make a band.”

Right at the moment Wonpil said his proposition, Yeeun turned on her seat. She was talking with Jaehyung, president of the music club, someone who should be listening to Wonpil’s music club woes. Jae must have said something because at that moment, Yeeun threw her head back into a sunny laughter and Sungjin’s world stopped. Everything went on mute. The only thing that existed was Yeeun and her magical laughter.

He was too young to contemplate about dying, but he was pretty sure he’d die to hear her laugh his entire life.

“So, what do you say?” Unlike Sungjin, Wonpil’s world kept on turning, careening into oblivion, even. Wonpil looked at Sungjin intently, but Sungjin’s eyes were still on Yeeun. He would have sighed impatiently but Wonpil needed Sungjin more than teasing him right now.

“Sungjin. I just asked you a question.”

Sungjin blinked. And a couple more until Yeeun’s vision was dispelled from his mind. He turned to his childhood friend and absentmindedly said, “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

Wonpil grinned his gummy grin and said, “You’re the best, Sungjinnie.”  
  
  
  


Kim Wonpil fucking played Park Sungjin.

Sungjin would have raged but honestly, Wonpil would just talk his ear off if he confronted him. He’d rather keep his sense of hearing, thank you very much. Sometimes, he thought Wonpil ignored his sordid and violent past with the gang called Bears, thinking he was still the same Sungjinnie he latched onto back in their kindergarten days.

He could only shake his head at his friend’s antics. Wonpil was too kind-hearted for this cruel world. The least Sungjin could do was to give him this small favor. Besides, it had been too long since he had sung on stage.

Before he got mixed up with the Bears, Sungjin was a regular member of the choir, the music club, practically all clubs that needed anyone who sang. His parents loved that he dreamed of becoming a singer one day.

But he strayed away from that path. Power and authority blinded him for a while back there before he saw the light, quite literally.

Shin Yeeun appeared at his darkest time and saved him.

It was a gang battle between the Bears and their fiercest enemy, the Foxes. He was fending off five men larger than him when someone took advantage of his distraction. He felt the knife break through his skin and dig deep into his side before the fight muted everything around him.

One of his brothers in arms had noticed he had fallen. Sungjin was sure they would have helped him but the sirens of an oncoming police car broke through the noise of the riot. Soon, everyone dispersed… except for him. He couldn’t stand up, let alone bring himself home to heal.

Without the crowd of young men fighting, the policemen were none the wiser about the squabble that occurred literally just minutes before. The police car passed by him and didn’t notice his bleeding form tucked behind the stacks of boxes and garbage in that alley.

He didn’t know how Yeeun found him. But he remembered he closed his eyes because he was so tired and opened them to a blinding light from her phone.

She was there in the ambulance with him and held his hand tightly the entire trip to the hospital.

Since then, he had tried to live a better life than he did before. He owed his life to Yeeun. He couldn’t let her efforts go to waste.

The door of the music club room hitting the walls broke Sungjin from his reverie and sucked him back to the present. Jaehyung swaggered inside the room, with as much swagger his very thin and very tall body could. “Yo, Wonpil. What’s Young Blood doing in here?”

Wonpil paused playing the keyboard and glared at Jae. “Young Blood here is a part of the club now.”

“I don’t appreciate being called Young Blood, you guys--”

“Since when?” Jae’s words had a biting edge to them. Maybe Sungjin should just keep his quiet. Clearly, this wasn’t a battle he should be getting in the middle of. Wonpil and Jae could call him whatever they wanted, only if they stopped flirt-arguing. It was honestly annoying him.

“Since this morning. Because you couldn’t be bothered to help me find members for the band we’re forming.” At this point, Wonpil had already stood up from his keyboard and walked closer to Jae. No, walked is a tame word for the dramatic stomping of Wonpil’s feet.

Wonpil stood way shorter than Jae but it didn’t stop him from decimating the taller guy with his deathly glare.

“What band are you talking about?”

Wonpil’s eyes narrowed further before he threw up his hands seemingly in surrender. “The band Mr. Jinyoung talked to me about it earlier! I told you about this when we were at the computer lab!”

Oooh, they were at the computer lab, Sungjin thought. They stopped having computer science classes after sophomore year. It was interesting why Jaehyung and Wonpil would find themselves there.

“I was busy looking up the owner of the cafe place we went to for our economics class!” Jae fired back.

Sungjin continued to watch Jae and Wonpil fight. Honestly, Jaehyung should just accept defeat and let Wonpil win. They would never hear the end of it if Jaehyung continued to fight back.

“It wasn’t for our project, admit it! Ugh, nothing irritates me more than your intentional ignorance.”

“Say what? Intentional ignorance?”

“Yes! You’re the club president but you’re off stalking that old lady--”

“She’s not that old! Have some respect for our noona!”

Wonpil glared. “My entire future hangs on the success of this stupid band we have not formed yet and you’re busy panting after an old crone?!”

Jae must have realized how mad Wonpil was because he pursed his lips and said nothing in reply.

“As I was saying, “ Wonpil continued calmly as if they weren’t fighting a verbal war moments before. “Sungjinnie is kind enough to join our band. He can play the rhythm guitar.”

“I play the rhythms--”

“Then play the lead one! God, it’s not like you’re not musically gifted enough to play only one kind of guitar.” Wonpil grumbled.

Maybe Jae thought no one noticed the small, appreciative tilt of his mouth but Sungjin did. Interesting.

“That was a compliment, right?”

“Take it however you want,” Wonpil answered. “Now, we need a bassist and a drummer. Do you know anyone, Jaehyung?”

Jae shrugged.

Sungjin sighed. It was going to be a long three months.  
  
  
  


Younghyun hated the Foxes. If anyone asked him why he was still hanging out with these idiots and risking his future by doing so, he wouldn’t also know how to answer them. He asked himself the question why he was still wasting his time doing silly pranks and skipping classes.

He missed Toronto.

He missed his friends Terry and Don. The pranks they did back in Canada were fun and exhilarating. They even made a garage band! That was really awesome. Granted they were making a lot more noise than actual music, but it was the most fun they had that one summer.

(A few days later, his father uprooted their family back to Korea. Only for his parents to leave him again and move to the Middle East. Visa things and whatnot were the reasons they said why he was staying with his poor grandmother here in Korea, but Younghyun knew better. They wanted more time to themselves.)

He sullenly watched as the Foxes — he still couldn’t help but snort at their name — continued to chatter about the prank they were gonna pull at the Super Arcade that night. It was super dumb but he’d already promised he would be there.

He was bored.

The door to the warehouse they were staying at flew open and revealed one of the older kids, panting. “Bang sighting!”

Everyone hushed and listened to the kid who barged in. He jogged to the circle of lost boys before he continued, “Last night, some of the Foxes said they saw Bang at the alley behind the convenience store. We went there to scout today and we saw him!”

“Are you sure it was Bang?” one of the younger kids asked.

The older kid nodded fervently. “I’d know that bald head anywhere I go.”

“Then, what are we waiting for? Let’s attack him tonight. Blindside him and take revenge from what he did last year!” a gap-toothed kid cried out.

Younghyun nudged the kid sitting by his foot and asked, “What did Bang do last year?”

He wasn’t a part of the gang then so he didn’t know. There was a lot of history to cover being a part of a gang, he found out. Keeping friends in Toronto wasn’t this hard.

“Injured several Foxes last year and lit up all the fireworks in this warehouse we were in. We were supposed to be the ones to do it, but he beat us all into it.” 

Younghyun could see the clenched fist of the young boy. Apparently, that was a big deal. If he weren’t such a neophyte around this crowd, he would have snorted at their childhood antics.

He stood up from his seat and everyone turned their eyes at him. “I’m heading into the arcade. I’ll wait for you guys there.”

He said as he raised one hand in farewell. He could hear them grumble and complain about his lack of solidarity but he couldn’t care less, to be honest.

At the arcade, he found his favorite game for the past few days and wasted his time playing it. He was so absorbed in his game that when he heard a commotion at the aisle behind him, he didn’t fully register it until a loud, old man’s voice cried out. “Hey!”

Standing up quickly, he tried to see if it was his crew when he was surprised to see it was the quiet genius from his class.

Yoon Dowoon?

He kept his pace cool as he approached them and just as the arcade owner raised his fist to hit Dowoon, Younghyun interceded. He caught the hand and pulled it towards him. “How about you pick someone your size next time, hmm?”

The man turned to glare at him and shook his hand free from Younghyun’s hold. Behind the man, Younghyun could see Dowoon rise up from his seat and walk calmly away.

Really? He saved his scrawny ass and he’ll leave Younghyun with his mess? Unbelievable.

Toronto had never felt so far away until that moment.

  
  
  
  
  


Younghyun’s cheek smarted as he made his way home. He pressed on the tender bruise on his cheek with the tips of his fingers — the arcade owner got one punch in before Younghyun swept him off his feet. The alley he was in was dark until it met an intersection where a small grocery store was. The brightly lit porch of the store invited his attention and to his surprise, he saw Yoon Dowoon patiently sitting at one of the round tables.

It looked like he was waiting for him?

Younghyun walked closer to his classmate and said, “I handled your mess for you and you just left me there?”

“Why would I stay there when I know I didn’t have the odds to win a fight with him?” Dowoon said calmly. Younghyun didn’t expect his voice to be this deep. That was… disconcerting.

Younghyun pulled one of the chairs across Dowoon and plopped down. “Look at these,” he said as he pointed at his injuries on his face. “These are all your fault. You’ve ruined my pretty face.”

Dowoon seemed to have ignored him and wordlessly slid his hand under the table, only to throw an egg and a stick of butter at Younghyun. “Press these against your bruises.”

Younghyun scoffed. He couldn’t believe this kid. “That’s it?”

“Well, I could treat you to lunch tomorrow, if that’s not enough.”

“I don’t need your lunch money. I was asking for a simple ‘thank you’, you dense brat.”

“I really am a dense brat, glad you caught up,” Dowoon answered back, still indifferently.

Younghyun just stared at Dowoon in disbelief until the other kid smirked at him slowly. That made him laugh.

“You know, I didn’t know what I was expecting from you. But it wasn’t this.”

Dowoon shrugged. “I don’t fit into most people’s expectations.”

“That you do.”

“You, too.”

Younghyun bristled at this. It was true. But he didn’t ask to be called out by the class — Well, Dowoon wasn’t the class loner. In fact, he was quite a popular kid despite being cold and aloof. “Well…”

“We’ll need to find a new arcade to hangout at.” Dowoon said as he sipped his banana milk noisily.

“Wait, hold up. We’re hanging out now?”

Dowoon shrugged again. The boy liked shrugging, Younghyun noticed. “What else are we going to do? Stare at each other’s eyes?”

Younghyun snorted. “I mean, we’re friends now?”

“Aren’t we? You just saved me from being beaten into a pulp. Nothing bonds people better than intense experiences.”

Younghyun stared at Dowoon. Again, Dowoon was right. The warm and fuzzy feeling Younghyun was feeling in his chest bloomed. He’d hate to call it belongingness but, maybe.

Maybe.  
  
  
  


Dowoon liked hanging out with Younghyun. The gangster-wannabe talked more than enough for the two of them, it turned out. And Younghyun had lots of energy and angst to burn through. He was game for anything and everything, even though Dowoon didn’t want to do much.

Theirs was an unlikely friendship, but it was a friendship Dowoon would like to keep. 

True enough to his words, Younghyun helped him find an arcade they could hang out with the next day. The one they found was only a few blocks away from the old one and had Band Hero, which was awesome. Younghyun lit up when he saw the setup and practically dragged Dowoon inside the booth to try it.

Since then, they’ve been hanging out and holing up in the Band Hero booth. Dowoon was a beast on the drums. How he learned to play such a cool instrument was beyond Younghyun. But he was having fun and enjoying himself more than he did with the Foxes.

Until one day, two of the scrawny kids cornered him on the stairs at school. He was about to jog out of their building and meet Dowoon by the gate when Felix and Seungmin practically chest bumped him. 

“Hey, Brian. Long time no see,” Felix said in his accented voice.

“Wassup.”

Seungmin looked him up and down, as if that would intimidate Younghyun, who was bigger and taller. “We’re busy looking for Bang to take our revenge. You should be clocking in your hours with us. Or don’t you want to be a part of the Foxes, anymore?”

The boys crowded him in until his back hit the wall. They were doing their best to provoke him. “You think you’re better than us, don’t you?” Felix said as he pushed Younghyun by his shoulder.

“Well, I am--”

Felix threw a punch at the wall beside Younghyun’s shoulder and snarled, “The Foxes won’t forget this. Once you’re in, you can’t get out.”

“Well, if the elusive Bang was any proof--”

“Shut up!” Seungmin pushed him then. Younghyun was sure Seungmin did his best but really, the kids should start eating better than cheesy chips when they hung out at their HQ.

Felix and Seungmin started slapping him around, nothing really serious, and he wasn’t going to fight. Really. But it was starting to get annoying and he really needed to go now, or else someone might take his and Dowoon’s spot at the Band Hero room.

“Okay, stop it.” Younghyun straightened to his full height which spooked the boys. They took a step back…

And that was when Shin Yeeun saw him.

  
  
  


It sucked to be in detention but it sucked more to spend it with the blabbermouth snitch who told him to the principal and got the whole story wrong.

Younghyun slouched down his seat as he fiddled with Dowoon’s DS. That kid was loaded and was super generous with his things. Maybe because Younghyun was his only friend that’s why Dowoon was lenient on lending his stuff.

Yeeun blabbered his ear off in the background and to be honest, he had stopped listening to her after the first five minutes of his detention. 

He didn’t know why people thought Yeeun was a kind and pretty girl. The class treated her as if she were a dainty fairy, when in reality, she was exactly the type of person who would talk your ear off in the most annoying way.

“As I was saying, you should really stop hanging out with the bad eggs--”

Really, who called gangsters bad eggs in this day and age?

Younghyun didn’t know what Park Sungjin, class president, saw in this girl. Really. Sungjin could do a lot better and seemed like he was a good catch himself. Younghyun would have a crush on Sungjin himself if he only spent more time with him other than being seated behind him during homeroom.

He began to explain, “I wasn’t hanging out with them—”

She snorted.

“—I was supposed to go meet my friend downstairs when they cornered me.”

“You have another friend? Am I supposed to believe that?” Yeeun leveled him with a look.

“Uhm, yes? That’s what you do when people tell you things. You believe them.” Younghyun raised an eyebrow at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“For someone who is a part of a gang, you sure are too trusting,” Yeeun said with a snort.

“And for someone who is the class fairy, you do snort a lot. I really don’t see what people see in you.” Younghyun crossed his arms on his chest and shook his head at her.

That ignited the unholy fury in Yeeun’s heart. She glared at Younghyun, slammed a hand on the table, and said, “I am kind and generous and loving. And it shows in my face.”

Younghyun snorted at this. “And humble, apparently.”

Yeeun flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I can’t help it that I’m beautiful.”

They stared at one another, one tense silence that stretched until they both couldn’t take it anymore and broke into guffawing laughter. “You’re funny, Snitch.”

“You too, Gangster Boy.”

The next day, Younghyun took advantage of having no detention to waste his time on and sped his way out of the classroom once the final bell rang. Dowoon was taking his sweet time walking through the corridors, oblivious to the shrieks of his fangirls.

“Hurry up, pup! We’re going to miss our room!” he yelled at Dowoon.

Dowoon continued to sip on his banana milk before he said, “And whose fault is that?”

“I told you, I had detention yesterday. It wasn’t my fault!” Younghyun gruffly explained.

“It usually is the student’s fault if they were placed in detention,” Dowoon pointed out.

Younghyun huffed. “Well, not this time. The pretty girl in our class—”

“Shin Yeeun?”

“—snitched on me. Yeah! Her! How do you know her? Do you have a crush on her?”

If Dowoon was a person who snorted, he would have. Obviously, he was above that. He just looked at Younghyun like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ “I know everyone. And they all call her the pretty one.”

“Park Sungjin likes her so much,” Younghyun pointed out. He didn’t know why, though. That was completely irrelevant.

Dowoon continued to look at him as they meandered to the arcade. (Yes, meandered. Dowoon walked very slowly.) “I know.”

Younghyun stopped on his tracks. “Huh? How do you know that?”

“I know a lot of things. People think I don’t pay attention, but I do.”

“Really now? What else do you know that most people in our class don’t?”

Dowoon shook his head. “It’s not for you to worry about… yet.”

Huh? That was mysterious.

They got into the arcade, which was surprisingly empty. They were the only ones in there, aside from the part-timer manning the front. They immediately went to the Band Hero room where they both quickly proceeded to smash hits one after another. Younghyun had to make up for lost time yesterday, and Dowoon didn’t get to play a lot while Younghyun was in detention.

In the middle of their Moves Like Jagger cover, someone banged on the door. Younghyun jumped in surprise. He was about to ignore it, thinking it was just some punk pranking them, when the banging continued.

“Hello! We’re here!”

Younghyun stopped and let the music continue before turning to Dowoon in surprise. “What? Who’s that? What’s he saying?”

Dowoon reached over for the remote to pause the game and walked to the door. The silence deafened Yuounghyun. He checked his phone and saw that they had been playing for a good three hours now. Well, that explains why his ears hurt from the sudden silence. 

Dowoon opened the door and there’s no other way to describe how Kim Wonpil spilled over with Park Sungjin and Park Jaehyung following him.

“Took you awhile,” Dowoon calmly said.

“What’s happening?” Jae asked confusedly. The thin man pushed his gold-rimmed glasses up his face, turning around the cramped room.

“I could ask you the same thing,” Younghyun asked, his voice an octave lower. It’s a fight-or-flight response he usually had when caught off-guard.

“Nice baritone,” Wonpil pointed out. He straightened up before he settled himself on the pleather sofa. “How low and high can your vocals reach?”

“Uhm…” Younghyun looked unsurely at Dowoon before looking back at Wonpil.

“Have you heard him earlier? Those notes are not easy to reach but he did them without breaking a sweat,” Dowoon answered.

Wonpil crossed his arms over his chest before he placed a hand on his chin, thinking. “True. It was really stable, too.”

“Want to check his bass?”

“It would be better if we used real instruments,” Wonpil said dryly.

“I still don’t understand what’s happening here,” Sungjin piped in. He was looking uncomfortable, like he didn’t know what to do with himself. His eyes kept on straying on the door and on the small translucent window on one of the walls.

“Don’t worry, we’re safe here.” Something about the sure way Dowoon said it almost calmed Sungjin. And when Wonpil piped in, “Oh yeah, trust Dowoon,” he forced himself to. Wonpil had his back since Kindergarten. He knew Wonpil won’t throw him under the bus, except when he had this bright idea of forming a band.

“I’m still lost,” Jaehyung said as he plopped on the other end of the sofa.

“You’re always lost. Anyway, how are we going to get instruments?” Wonpil directed the question to Dowoon.

“Hmm. Let me check.” Dowoon took out his phone and fiddled with it for a few seconds before he walked towards Younghyun. “Which model do you like?”

Distracted, Younghyun turned his attention to Dowoon’s phone. On the screen were several models of bass. He didn’t know if this was one of Dowoon’s weird hypothetical questions so Younghyun did what he always did with Dowoon’s weird questions: answer them seriously.

He took the phone from him and scrolled through several units before the gold and black one caught his eye. “This seems cool. Looks very rockstar.”

Dowoon took the phone, tapped a few buttons before saying, “Okay, it will be delivered tomorrow at the Music Club room. Music Club room, right?” he asked Wonpil.

Wonpil nodded.

“Okay, I still don’t understand anything. Can someone please explain what’s happening here?” Younghyun stomped his feet and turned to everyone.

Dowoon smirked. “We’re forming a band.”

  
  



	2. what can i do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's called growing pains for a reason.

There were two months left before the school fair and their band was nowhere near passably good. They fought more than they made actual good music, which was saying a lot since they spend more hours practicing than studying, sleeping, and playing video games combined.

But despite this, Younghyun couldn’t deny how much fun he had been having. The Foxes didn’t hold a candle at how exhilarating it was to figure out how to arrange music and play with other instruments. He’d even go as far to say that they were bonding together, however reluctantly from the others’ parts.

For him though, this was the closest to the friendship he’d had with Terry and Don back in Toronto.

Their practices often stretched until almost midnight, which only ended when Wonpil’s mom would call him. Dowoon would hit the cymbals harder, his way of saying he actually hated stopping practice. Sungjin would gingerly get up from his seat after hours of not moving from it, his hips dipping left then right, then left, then right until he penguin walked his way towards the door. 

Jae, well. Younghyun figured out the hard way that there’s no one he clashed more in this world than Park Jaehyung.

Jaehyung was the assigned lead guitarist of the band. To be honest, Younghyun was only passably good at bass and more adept at guitars. But they had two guitarists now. Whenever he would pipe in a comment, Jaehyung would fix his bespectacled stare at him and, in Korean that runs a marathon, tell him how Younghyun’s opinion sucked major balls.

Every. Day.

Tonight, they packed up early because they had a test tomorrow and Wonpil’s mother was anxious his baby boy would fail a test at the expense of his college audition tapes. Clearly, the Kim family were all sharing the nerves at this high-stakes performance.

As usual, Dowoon was an immovable force on his drum throne. He stayed right after Wonpil flew out of the practice room, dragging Jaehyung in tow. (They were next-door neighbors, was the excuse. Younghyun was beginning to see something more but he wondered if the boys could see it themselves, too.)

So tonight, it was him, Sungjin, and Dowoon cleaning up the practice room and probably getting dinner. It was only 10:15pm. They could pass by any store along the way.

“Aigoo, aigoo. My back hurts,” Sungjin muttered under his breath as he tipped to the left and to the right as he usually did after practice.

Younghyun watched him as he placed his bass back into its case. “Maybe you should exercise more in the mornings, stretch those old bones out.”

Sungjin threw him a glance before smiling. “Ah, you’re right. I really should get some exercise in.”

“Maybe it’s time to go back to attending our PE classes,” Dowoon suggested. He was zipping up his bag that contained his drumsticks before he walked over the coat hanger.

Huh? That was a revelation. Younghyun had never noticed how their class president was not attending PE. “You don’t attend PE? Are you like, medically excused or something?”

“Both,”

“Medically excused,”

Both Dowoon and Sungjin piped in at the same time.

Younghyun gave them the side eye. “Well, that isn’t intriguing at all. What gives, prez?” At this point, Younghyun was done carefully placing his bass on its case. He moved towards Dowoon who was idly standing by the coat hanger.

Sungjin sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“It’s not, though,” Dowoon piped in, which earned him a scary glare from Sungjin. He only laughed it off.

Dowoon’s laughing more often these days. When it was just Younghyun and Dowoon, he would hear it every now and then, mostly at Younghyun’s expense. With all these boys around, Dowoon was slowly beginning to get out of his shell. And… Younghyun was happy to witness it. Again, that warm and fuzzy feeling would radiate and pulse inside him for hours after. It was blessedly amazing.

“What Dowoon meant to say, is that I don’t attend PE classes because it would put me in harm’s way. And by harm’s way, I meant your friends. And also because my stitches from last year would probably come off,” Sungjin explained succinctly. He jostled his backpack onto his back before motioning at the two other boys to get a move on so they could lock up.

“My friends? You guys are my only friends here,” Younghyun’s mouth said before his brain could filter it. Crap. He didn’t intend to say that out loud. At all. It placed him in an incredibly vulnerable position that reminded him of all the precious things he lost without his control.

Sungjin blinked his adorable eyes at him. “Okay, we’ll talk about that later. But thank you for considering us your friends. Or your only friends, at that. But I meant, your Foxy friends.”

Sungjin slid the door shut and locked it from the front before they made their way out of the dimly lit hall.

“The Foxes? What did you do with them? Snitch them to the principal?” Younghyun snorted. “It’s not like Old Jinyoung didn’t know about them.”

“Well, you’re not wrong. Old Jinyoung,” Sungjin shot him a reproaching look. This guy is such a stickler to rules and authority. Younghyun wondered if Sungjin ever did a wrong thing in his entire life, aside from crushing on the blandest person ever. “...do happen to know who the Foxes are and what they’re up to. Kids arounds these parts had built a gangster culture. Older people just decided to keep a blind eye at them since they mostly prank each other. No harm done.”

They were already walking their way out of the building. It was strangely windy for Spring. Younghyun didn’t know if it was just the wind howling or if Dowoon actually snorted.

“That was… until last year. I got stabbed by the Foxes,” Sungjin said very casually, as if he were talking about the chilly weather and not a life-or-death situation.

Youngyun stopped in his tracks. He felt his eyes bug out of their sockets. Why the fu—

“What?!” he blurted out incredulously.

Sungjin had the gall to just shrug.

“Well, don’t just shrug there! What do you mean they stabbed you?!”

“I had it coming, okay? I wasn’t probably, supposedly, there,” Sungjin said.

Dowoon, who was now behind Sungjin, continued. “Sungjin was part of the Bears before.”

Sungjin sighed deeply. “Yeah, that’s right. I went by the name ‘Bang’.” He giggled after saying this.

Giggled! Really. This revelation was blowing Younghyun’s entire mind and Park Sungjin could only giggle at the fact that he was a notorious and almost-mythical gangster just last year!

Younghyun gaped at them. “You were Bang? But… But he’s supposedly bald?!”

Sungjin snickered. “Come on, let’s get moving. I’ll explain on the way. Dowoon, what do you want for dinner?”

“Are you going to treat us?” Dowoon answered back. They walked out of the school gates and walked towards the main road. There were plenty of small food kiosks left, most of which they tried the last few nights.

“As if. You’re the loaded one here. Ah, I shouldn’t be asking you what dinner you want. I should be asking what Younghyun and I want for dinner. Thanks for the treat, Dowoonie!” Sungjin laughed.

Dowoon mock whined at this but Younghyun knew the youngest of them would pay the bill at the end of the night without any question.

“Let’s get chicken and ramyeon and answers. I need answers, Park Sungjin!” Younghyun balled his fists at Sungjin.  
  


Sungjin didn’t know where to begin. He supposed, if he were as dramatic as Wonpil, he would’ve begun were it ended. His ending as Bang was his rebirth as Sungjin. He tried not to think much about this painful time. He tried not to dig deep into the people he had been in the span of a year and a half. But one of the hard lessons that he had learned from then was confronting one’s self had to be done at some point or another.

Telling Younghyun his side of things would be the first time he would talk about what happened. He wasn’t close with Dowoon, but he knew the youngest had some idea. Dowoon was a wild card. He really didn’t know how much he knew, but what Sungjin knew was that Dowoon’s influence was far more reaching than he could comprehend right now.

It was a strange comfort to have someone as quietly powerful as Dowoon on his side right now.

Perhaps, it was also this unspoken power and influence that had him venturing into the dark side. He was, for the lack of a better word, lost back then. He wasn’t sure if he was still lost now. Sometimes, it felt like he had been living with no end in sight, too. But these days, he tried not to take things that were beyond his control against himself. He tried to focus on himself, on choosing to be good, kind, and everything he needed and wanted himself to be. And that was more than enough.

“So, where to begin,” Sungjin mused as he looked at his plate of fried chicken. They looked sticky with bright red spicy sauce and a healthy sprinkling of sesame seeds. 

“I personally would eat the wings first. Then the drumsticks,” Dowoon said beside him, trying to break the ice.

“Not that, you idiot. But okay, I’ll do as you say,” Sungjin answered as he picked up one of the wings. It was piping hot, just the way he liked it.

“So, the Bears and the Foxes?” Younghyun prompted.

“It was all a mistake. I shouldn’t have been there. Both in the gang and at that alley that final night,” Sungjin began. “I only joined because… I thought it was the right thing. I didn’t know what was right from wrong then. I thought belonging somewhere was better than belonging nowhere.”

A shadow passed through Sungjin’s eyes. They usually have this glitter of life and kindness that couldn’t be hidden. But at that moment, Younghyun realized the price that Sungjin had to pay to get that brilliance. Nothing beautiful ever came naturally, perhaps. There always had to be a struggle to be won over for things to become beautiful.

“That night, there was a fight. I couldn’t remember what it was about. It was probably something dumb,”

“Fireworks. They were mad you lit up the fireworks in the warehouse before they could,” Younghyun explained.

Sungjin snapped his fingers in enlightenment. “That’s it! Yeah, you’re right. They told you the right story. So, they found out about it and wanted to get even. Fights were usually done with bare fists. But that night, someone must have brought a knife because I ended up with it stuck on my side.”

Younghyun grimaced. They were high school students. No one should be getting stabbed, least of all by a knife. Pencil stabbing was okay, since Wonpil was prone to doing that whenever Younghyun and Jae got a little in too deep with their arguments.

Then, the most miraculous thing happened. Younghyun would swear that nothing in the world looked as beautiful as Park Sungjin’s eyes regaining their shine. His whole face lit up. But the words that followed made Younghyun feel like someone pushed him off the cliff without him knowing. 

“Yeeun saved me. She was there. I didn’t know how. But she was there. I woke up in the ambulance with her hand in mine, and I swore then that I would live the life she saved as best as I could.”

Sungjin couldn’t see it since he was sitting beside Dowoon, but the youngest was making mocking faces at his story. Apparently, it wasn’t just Younghyun who disliked Shin Yeeun.

“Is that why Jae keeps on calling you ‘Young Blood’?” Younghyun asked.

Sungjin shrugged. “He’s good friends with Yeeun. I’d think he would know about what happened.”

Dowoon cleared his throat then before balling up a tissue he had used to wipe his hands. “Great. Now you know about each other. Let’s talk about music. Younghyun, you should really start listening to my timings before you start fingering your bass.”

  
  


Wonpil was fuming. One and a half months before the showcase, and their Economics teacher had the gall to assign them a research project. Their time practicing would be cut short because they had to research and study, of all things. Didn’t Mr. Nickkhun realize what was at stake here?

Wonpil was stressed all the time and for someone who never got stressed, it was killing him. He exploded at everyone and anyone. One time, he and Sungjin were in line in the cafeteria to get some lunch when a freshman cut in. Someone went off crying that day and it wasn’t Wonpil.

(Later on, after he was well-fed and enjoying the Spring breeze on the school rooftop, Sungjin would tell him that the young boy was actually the batch bully. Kim Wonpil, kindness personified, made a class bully cry. He didn’t know what to do with this knowledge. When he told the story to Jae, he smiled proudly at him. So that was fun.)

Today, they were back at the cafe Jae’s crush was running. The noona was actually nice. She would always give them a slice of cake each and tea before they start their interviews. She was soft-spoken and gentle, which Wonpil usually liked in a person. Except that Jae would always gaze at her as if she hung the moon up on the sky.

It was adding to Wonpil’s stress.

He blew a raspberry as Jae asked another dumb question at the noona. Honestly, Jae was wasting their time with his dumb brain cells.

“But where did you get the inspiration to name your coffee after flowers?” Jae asked with a lovestruck grin on his silly face.

Wonpil rolled his eyes at this. “Jae, can we ask more important questions than how noona names her coffee?”

Jae straightened up and glared at Wonpil. “What, this is an important question. Mr. Nickkhun would ask about the role of creativity in improving the demands of a retail food and beverage unit.”

The noona giggled. “You two are so cute. You remind me of me and my girlfriend back in high school.” Now it was her turn to sigh dreamily.

Wonpil didn’t miss the look Jae gave him. _Noona is taken?_

Wonpil rolled his eyes, again, at Jae. _Didn’t you see the ring on the finger?_ He subtly tapped on his ring finger.

Jae shot a look at noona’s finger and true enough, there was a rose gold wedding ring with a tiny stone on the top. It looked really classy. Something Wonpil would dream of at night and tell Jae on their way to school the following day.

He looked back at Wonpil. _Damn, how did I miss that?_

Wonpil just made a face at him in response. 

“See, that’s also a thing my girlfriend and I would do back then. Of course, we didn’t know it then. But all our friends would tell us we were doing it.” The noona sighed. “Ah, young love. Enjoy it while it’s in the early stage, kids.”

“Uhm, what? Sorry, what are you talking about, noona?” Wonpil was confused. Why was she talking about them now? So, noona was partnered in an Economics research paper with her now-girlfriend?

“Silly, you two! You’ve only started dating, am I correct? Otherwise, you’d have all the promise rings and PDA’s.” Noona giggled again. “But if you’re holding back on my account, don’t worry. This cafe is a safe space. You’re free to do whatever you like, including loving who you love.”

Jae blushed hard and sputtered. “You thought—”

“—that we Jae and I are dating?” Wonpil finished.

The noona nodded. “Well, yes. Aren’t you, though? You have great chemistry together! And the sparks!” Noona made a gesture of explosion with her hands. “It’s just all over the place. I’ve never seen two people with as much spark as you two. Are you sure you two are not dating?”

  
  
  


“I can’t believe she said that!” Wonpil was still fuming when they got back to the practice room. Jae was maintaining his distance, afraid that Wonpil would direct all this anger at him. But it didn’t stop him from sneaking in some glances at his friend.

The other three boys were at god knows where, so it was just him and Wonpil. And his neighbor had not shut up ever since they left the cafe. All hopes of getting a date out with the pretty noona had been thrown out of the window. It was never happening now. (Well, because she was taken AND because he was dating Wonpil now, apparently.)

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Jae muttered under his breath as he took out his guitar from the case. It was better to tune his guitar now before Younghyun gives out a comment on how to properly tune a guitar. Jae mentally snorted. He had been playing the instrument since elementary school. Younghyun learned, what, last year? And he thought he’s an expert?

“Not big of a deal?! It is a big deal!” Wonpil exclaimed.

Jaehyung stopped fiddling with his guitar and placed it down to level Kim Wonpil a stare. A Stare. A stare that conveyed how hurt, fed up, and mad he was at how Wonpil was behaving. “And what’s so wrong about mistaking we were dating?”

Wonpil sputtered. “Because it’s not true?”

“Would it be so bad to date me?” Jae said in a whisper. He couldn’t help the hurt from showing up in his tone.

Wonpil froze. He didn’t mean that. Not at all. Sure, he had never imagined it. After all, he had the fattest crush on Park Sungjin. But dating Jae? Dating his neighbor, the boy he grew up with, the boy he went to school with. The one who would listen to him rant about everything and anything. The one he shared emergency ice cream meetings with at the dead of the night.

Now that the idea was there…

No. He had to stop himself. He couldn’t think of anything like that right now.

It might be good. There might be something hopeful and blooming there. But he couldn’t afford to think of things that would last more than college.

He had to focus on the things on his plate right now, because those alone were too much. He couldn’t afford balancing a precarious relationship on top of everything.

“It wouldn’t. But…” Wonpil began tentatively.

And that was when the door slid open.

“Great! You guys are here. Let’s start at the top,” Sungjin said as he brisk walked towards his seat at the center of the room. He was completely oblivious to the thick tension that filled the room. Picking up his guitar, he plugged his cord into the amp before he looked around.

“What’s wrong?” he asked after picking up the weird body language between Wonpil and Jaehyung.

“Nothing, we were just tired after the Econ paper,” Jae answered as he turned to his guitar again.

Dowoon passed by Wonpil and threw him a wrapped up chiffon cake. There was a bunny sticker on it. It was cute. Somehow, that helped diffuse all the negative emotions that had been stewing inside him. 

“Keep calm, Piri. We’re getting better,” Dowoon added. Of course, Dowoon only noticed how stressed Wonpil was lately. But he didn’t know about The Incident that happened just moments before.

Younghyun stomped towards his seat at the far end. “Maybe we can start working on our transition between the third and fourth song. It sounds a little off. Maybe add more drum fillers?”

“It sounds off because there’s already a lot of drum fillers,” Dowoon answered. “What do you think, Wonpil?”

That broke Wonpil out of his daze. He really should focus on their showcase. They had all the time in the world to think about him and Jae after.

  
  
  


That night, Jae strangely left and went ahead of Wonpil. Which, Wonpil thought might be for the best. He didn’t know what to say to him on the way home. It would have been thirty minutes of awkward, tense silence. He would’ve broken down.

So Wonpil joined Sungjin on the way home. They had to take the bus before they alight in their district. It was a good thing they changed out of their uniforms before they went home because there weren’t a lot of students out in the streets then.

They were talking about what to do to improve Sungjin’s guitar playing when Wonpil’s eyes caught something familiar. Or rather, someone familiar.

Shin Yeeun just got on the bus they were in.

Wonpil nudged Sungjin subtly, “Isn’t that Yeeun?”

Sungjin followed Wonpil’s gesture as his friend cocked his head towards the ladies section of the bus. True enough, Yeeun was there. She was in a cute jumper, her long, shiny hair beckoning at him.

Sungjin sighed dreamily. Wonpil rolled his eyes at him.

“I wonder what she’s doing out this late,” Wonpil whispered.

“She might have a part-time job we didn’t know about.” Yeeun was kind of an open book to the class. Whatever she was going through, everyone knew. Partly because she was a bit too friendly that she told everyone her business by the minute. Also partly because her best friend was Park Jaehyung, who wasn’t exactly a silent person.

They were still five stops away when they noticed Yeeun was already taking out her bus pass. She had already tapped out when something occurred to Sungjin. He didn’t know what exactly it was, but he had a gut feel that this was it. 

This was it. 

This was his night.

He was going to tell her how he felt, no matter the outcome.

So he tapped Wonpil on his shoulders and muttered a quick, “I’ll get off here. Byetakecare!” Before he ran off and followed Yeeun.

Wonpil didn’t even have enough time to react. Sungjin was already out of the door and just in time. (He almost got caught by the closing doors.)

He could only shake his head at Sungjin. Really, he had a crush on this dumb idiot? Sometimes, he thought he only nurtured his crush on Sungjin because there really was no one decent enough to have a crush on and Sungjin was the best there was.

Yeeun was lucky to have Sungjin like her. Although Wonpil wasn’t too happy with Yeeun, to be honest. Not because she was Jae’s best friend, when it could have easily been him. Not at all. Wonpil didn’t think like that.

But maybe one day he could have the guts to admit that.

Maybe.

  
  
  


“Yeeun! Wait a second,” Sungjin yelled after Yeeun as he ran after her.

The girl turned around with a quizzical expression on her face. What was Park Sungjin doing around her district?

Before she could even pull off her earphones, Sungjin had already started talking. He brought his palm up, his way of telling her to stop.

She didn’t catch the first part of what he was saying, but she only heard, “—like you. But you don’t have to answer. I just want you to know that before we graduated. And I’m really grateful for what happened last year.”

Yeeun smiled. Sungjin really didn’t have to thank her for doing the decent thing. She was about to tell him so when he held his palm up again and said, “That’s it. Have a good night, Yeeun. See you tomorrow at school.”

Sungjin smiled sadly at her before he ran off towards the direction of the train station.

That was a weird encounter. Maybe the band practice was getting to their heads. Maybe she had to check up on Jaehyung now.

  
  
  
  


On weekends, Younghyun worked part-time at this convenient store near their favorite arcade. It was a recent development, something Wonpil hated but couldn’t do anything about. As far as the bandmates knew, Younghyun wasn’t even doing it for the money. His grandmother asked him to help out a family friend. And who was Younghyun to decline his sweet grandmother’s request?

His shift was mostly during the dead time of the night, so he could still hangout with the boys and practice until he had to go on shift. By then, Sungjin had lost all feelings on his butt, Jae was half-dragging an exhausted Wonpil home, and Dowoon was stomping his feet out of the practice room.

And anyway, it was only during the weekends so Wonpil had no choice but to chalk it all up.

That day, practice went surprisingly well. They had finally nailed a clean run through of all four songs they were going to play. It was exhilarating. Even Dowoon looked happy at what they managed to do that day, and Dowoon was the strictest of them all. (Probably why him and Wonpil went along so well. They were both perfectionists.)

Sungjin tasked Younghyun to write a script of what to say and where to cut for an audience response for their performance before they left. He was doing that now on his shift. It was slow, especially during three in the morning, so Younghyun had all the time in the world.

That was, until a familiar face showed up.

Shin Yeeun went straight to the fridge section and began sorting through the juice packs.

It was weird to see a familiar face at three in the morning. It was even weirder to see Snitch around here. He was about to yell at her when the old man who managed the store came in and asked him to check something in the stockroom.

“Ah, Younghyunie. Good to see you here. Did you know if the boxes of energy drinks were delivered earlier?” the old man asked.

Younghyun had no idea. The part-timer before his shift was a jumpy kid who went by the name I.N. They never talked. Not even when I.N. had to turnover the set of keys to Younghyun for his shift. “Not sure, boss. I can check if you want.”

The old man nodded. “Okay, you do that. Let me man the cash register while you’re back there.”

So Younghyun popped in and out of the stockroom, checking if the boxes of energy drinks were where they should be. Seeing that they were all accounted for, he walked back to the register but by then he saw that the old man’s face was turning red.

“Younghyun, what’s the meaning of this?!” the old man sputtered.

Younghyun looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“The register’s short! Have you been pocketing money from here?!”

“What? No! I’ll never do that!”

By then, the commotion had gotten the attention of the only customer of the store. Yeeun walked closer to them before saying, “Is everything alright here?”

“Yeeun—”

“Yes, sorry about that. My part-timer here has been pocketing some money off the register. Please go on with your shopping,” the old man explained.

“But Younghyun would not do that.” Yeeun’s forehead furrowed in confusion. “Are you sure it was him? Maybe you counted it wrong?”

“NO! I said it was missing a few hundred won and that’s it! I should know because this is my store!” By then, the old man was so mad, his spit was flying off his mouth as he objected.

“Well, we can check the CCTV cameras if Younghyun did anything—”

“He did it! I’m saying he did it! Maybe you’re his accomplice!”

Yeeun tsked before she took Younghyun by the hand and dragged him out of the store. “That guy’s gone mental. Let’s go. We’ll find you a better part-time, Gangster Boy.”

  
  
  


“I can’t believe you’re in a gang but you couldn’t stand up for yourself,” Yeeun said as she moved her swing back and forth rather too quickly. She had been in a tirade for the past fifteen minutes as if it were her who was scammed by the old manager.

“Thanks for doing that for me, by the way.” Younghyun smiled.

Yeeun waved him off. “Think nothing of it. If I didn’t do it, you would have spent the entire dawn in juvenile detention. I’d hate to bail you out of there.”

“Out of curiosity, what would you do if that happened?”

“Well,” Yeeun stopped her swinging and looked up at the dark night sky. “I’ll call Yoon Dowoon first thing. One, he’s loaded. Two, he has connections around this town.” 

She shrugged. “Maybe you won’t need any bail money after all.”

Younghyun looked at her with wide eyes. “Right?! I thought so, too!”

“That Dowoon has so many connections we know nothing about?”

“No, that he’s pretty loaded! But I mean, yes. You’re right about the connections, too, I guess.” Younghyun scratched the back of his head.

They looked at each other - Younghyun at Yeeun sheepishly and Yeeun at Younghyun unexpectant - before they burst into laughter.

“You're not so bad. I think we’re going to be great friends, Gangster Boy,” Yeeun said in between laughing.

Younghyun shrugged. “We could have, if only we didn’t get off at the wrong foot.”

“It was your fault.”

“No, Snitch. It was clearly yours.”

  
  
  


The next day, Sungjin went into the classroom a little groggy and hungry. He didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t Yeeun hanging out at Younghyun’s table. He could take Jae around Yeeun. After all, Jae was all clumsy limbs and loud yells. He’d go down quick in a fight.

But Younghyun. Sungjin was honest to himself enough to admit that Younghyun was handsome, had that mysterious, bad boy aura going on for him. Park Sungjin was no match for him.

He couldn’t help the glare he directed at Younghyun. It was almost instinctive. He was tired from spending all his waking hours practicing the guitar, hungry as a normal high schooler, and jealous. 

Extremely. Jealous.

Younghyun noticed his presence and beamed at him while raising an arm in acknowledgement. For someone who was supposed to be a bad boy, Younghyun did smile a lot. He smiled like it didn’t cost him anything.

Maybe that was what Yeeun wanted. Maybe she liked sunny smiles made exciting by the dark alluring aura. Younghyun got the entire package.

Sullenly, Sungjin went to his seat, the one in front of Younghyun, without acknowledging his bandmate. He knew Younghyun would wonder what the sudden shift in mood was. But Sungjin couldn’t care less.

He was tired, hungry, and extremely jealous in a completely teenage way. 

And he had the goddamn right to feel it.

  
  
  


In the practice room, the sound of cymbals crashing broke the flow of music.

“Goddamn it, Younghyun!” Sungjin swore.

“I’m sorry!”

“This is the fifth time you missed this chord,” Sungjin spat.

“I’m sorry, okay!” Younghyun answered back. “God, no need to yell at me. I’m not dumb.”

The three others in the band looked with wide eyes as Sungjin erupted at Younghyun for the nth time that day. The two young men were fine yesterday. They were even sharing their hoard of onigiris with each other, something they didn’t do with the three others.

It seemed like something happened that morning for Sungjin to yell at his favorite band member for the smallest mistakes.

“Okay, let’s take another go at it. One, two, three…” Dowoon counted off.

Younghyun put his bass down with a heavy thud. “No. I need to cool my head off. And someone else should. Be back at five.” He was glaring daggers at Sungjin, who was volleying it back with the same intensity.

He slammed the door shut before Sungjin placed his guitar carefully on its stand and followed him out.

Jae and Wonpil looked at each other, then at Dowoon before they all collectively shrugged.

  
  
  


“What’s your problem?” Younghyun whirled around, sensing Sungjin was following him.

“Nothing… I’m sorry. I was out of line the whole time.” Sungjin raked his fingers through his hair. It was almost nine in the evening. Only the band practice hall was lit, the rest of the school was blanketed by darkness. Their words echoed through the hall, making them feel how alone they were.

Younghyun walked closer to Sungjin. He had grown a lot closer to the young man ever since he opened up about his past. In a way, he respected him. Not everyone could turn their life around, and as quickly as he did, the way Sungjin did. Even now that he wasn’t attending the Foxes’ events, Younghyun couldn’t even say if he was really out of the gang life.

Felix and Seungmin stopped bothering him but they still threw glares at him. That was fine with him. He didn’t really much care about the boys.

“I didn’t know what came over me. Actually no, that’s a lie,” Sungjin shook his head. “I knew what happened. I’m sorry, it’s actually stupid,” he muttered under his breath, like was reluctant to even say the words.

Younghyun realized Sungjin found it difficult to explain whatever it was that was bothering him. 

Park Sungjin was finding something difficult. 

Well, that was a new thing to witness. He thought nothing was ever difficult for the cool and composed band leader.

Younghyun couldn’t help but let out a tiny smirk at Sungjin’s struggles. Already, he knew he had forgiven Sungjin for whatever it was that made him cross at him.

“I was jealous of you,” Sungjin said.

Okay, that wasn’t what Younghyun was expecting to hear.

“What? Jealous? Of me? For what? For being the class delinquent?” Younghyun answered incredulously.

Sungjin glared at him. “Shut up, you’re not a delinquent.”

“I was on my way there, okay?”

“But you’re not. You’re a pretty good kid.”

“Uhm, okay.” Younghyun blushed. “But what was it that you’re j-- Oh god, I can’t even say the word!”

“I was jealous of you and Yeeun!” Sungjin blurted out.

There was a reverberating silence that followed Sungjin’s announcement.

“What? Me and Yeeun?” Younghyun repeated, completely in disgust with the idea. “Gross. I mean, why?”

“Because I like her, okay? You know I like her. And I told you it’s a stupid reason to get mad at you,” Sungjin muttered the last bit more to himself.

Younghyun smiled. “Sungjin, there’s really nothing between me and Yeeun. Gross, I don’t even think of her that way. And besides, my loyalty is with you first. Sungjin before anyone.”

“You mean, friends before anyone.” Sungjin tried to correct Younghyun. He knew that. Somehow, at the back of his mind, he knew that Younghyun was as loyal as could be. 

The boys, everyone in the band, they all fit perfectly with each other. They might not have started by choosing everyone as their own, but now that they’re here, together, they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

They would find themselves together one way or another, Sungjin was sure of it.

Younghyun’s smile grew bigger. “Aww, Sungjin. You think I’d choose Jaehyung over you? Nah. It’s Sungjin over anyone for me. Final answer.”

Sungjin reached over and ruffled Younghyun’s hair. “You’re being silly.”

Younghyun only grinned. “So we’re okay now, right?”

“Yep.” Sungjin turned and walked back to the practice room.

“Should we kiss and make up?” Younghyun jogged after him.

“You’re pushing it, Younghyun.”

Really, how could Sungjin get jealous of Younghyun when he was acting like his own fanboy every single day? Sungjin could only shake his head at himself. 

He was being silly.

  
  
  


The loud silence after the cleanest run through they ever did filled the practice room. Wonpil could only stare at the boys in awe as it started to sink in.

They actually got this.

They were playing as a band and they’re actually good. 

Younghyun was the first to break the silence, of course. He yelled and yelled, long and drawn out, as he placed his bass on its stand. He took off his shoes one by one and laid down on the floor. Still yelling.

Dowoon ran through some beats, his way of celebrating a clean finish.

And Wonpil, finally out of his awestruck stupor, yelled in a flat tone as he walked towards Jae and shook the taller man.

“AAAAHHHH~”

Sungjin was giggling in the center of the room as happiness bubbled out of his chest. “Okay, that was fun. Everyone, we got this. We’re ready for the school performance.”

Dowoon took out his phone and like an overly excited puppy, he went to the front and said, “Let’s take a picture. This is monumental!”

Younghyun got up and Jae and Wonpil broke off their hug. (They were hugging? Dowoon thought.) 

They clicked once, twice. Wonpil wasn’t too happy with some of the shots so they spent a bit longer than expected getting the SNS-perfect shot.

“Let’s get some chicken to celebrate!” Younghyun suggested, his foxy eyes glimmered brilliantly. Younghyun, they found out, wasn’t too difficult to make happy. Food had always been their go-to choice to lift his spirits up, especially after long practice hours. But at that moment, his eyes glittered like galaxies. They could all feel the contagious happiness Younghyun was exuding.

Wonpil was the first to agree, taking his backpack and leading the way. “Where should we head to?”

“I know just the place. Remember that shack we discovered the other day, Jae?” Younghyun began as he followed Wonpil. One by one, they went out of the practice room. 

And because everyone was already in a celebratory mood, they forgot to lock up the door.

  
  
  


The next morning, Dowoon was the first to arrive at the practice room as he usually did. He slotted the key into the keyhole and was surprised to find it wasn’t locked. It didn’t wake him up from his sleepy state, though. He didn’t think any of it as he slid the door open, only to find the band room wrecked.

Completely, utterly wrecked.

His precious drum kit was the first he noticed. The parts were all over the room. The bass drum torn. His precious cymbals laid on their sides. All the guitars and bass had their strings pulled and their necks broken. Everything was exactly like Dowoon’s worst nightmare and worse, it was real.

It was all real.

He stood in the midst of a disaster zone and finally, finally, that woke him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> band picture [ here, maybe ](https://img1.daumcdn.net/thumb/R720x0.q80/?scode=mtistory2&fname=http%3A%2F%2Fcfile21.uf.tistory.com%2Fimage%2F2679B63E59106FCC09873D)

**Author's Note:**

> We won MAMA 2020 Best Band Performance Award so I'm dropping this monster now ✨
> 
> It was supposed to be a trilogy fic, but it snowballed into something different. Chapter 2 and 3 will be up SOON. Please bear with me, I write very slowly.


End file.
